3rd Person's P.O.V

Hearing the yells below, Marinette and Adrien leapt up, looking at each other.

"Looks like your Father somehow figured out where we are. That's not good."

Adrien, still slow with sadness, nodded,
"Yes..."

"There's no way he knows that we are Ladybug and Chat Noir yet. So he must he coming for you as Adrien."

The yells grew more frantic, then suddenly went scarily silent. Heavy footsteps started pounding up the spiral of stairs, and a sinister voice cried out,
"Adrien... where are you!?"

"No no no no no!" Adrien cried clutching his head in despair. "What are we meant to do?"

"Well I reckon we transform and fight him. But we risk him figuring out our secret identities."

"There's not enough time!" Adrien whispered despairingly as the footsteps grew closer.

Marinette looked at him, torn between comforting her kitty in his obvious distress, or getting down to action. She came to a decision, and stood,
"Tikki-"

BANG.
She was too slow in her choice, for her bedroom trapdoor flew open, and the Collector stepped through, his tie adorned with two pins, one showing Sabine, the other Tom.

Adrien could only silently stand and stare at the scene before him.

"Maman! Papa!" Marinette cried out in despair, then defiantly turned to the villain,
"Let them go!"

He smirked,
"No. I would much rather add you to my collection alongside them." Then he grew angry, snarling at her, "you, Marinette Dupain-Cheng are a bad influence on my Adrien. Without you, he would never have dared to disobey my express orders!"

Then, he lifted a hand to his glasses, and attempted to shoot a beam of sorts towards Marinette, which she dodged, but as she dodged, she tripped, and he turned towards her with a gleeful smile, his finger lifting to the trigger.

"No!" Adrien cried, and leapt in front of Marinette, but too late.

The beam hit her, and she disintegrated as a new pin appeared on The Collectors tie, the design that of a frightened face, belonging to Marinette.

The events of the day had left Adrien exhausted, physically, mentally, and emotionally, and, for a few moments, all he could do was lay on the ground at the spot where he had landed.

He slowly lifted his head,
"Why?" He whispered.

The Collector frowned down at him,
"Speak up boy! Did Natalie never teach you that it is rude to mutter?"

Adrien swallowed hard, then repeated his question louder, this time with an edge of bravado,
"Why?!"

"How dare you disobey my orders! Once you are pinned, you will no longer be able to sneak away from me!"

"What did you do to her?!"

"Oh, Marinette?" The collector smirked, "Why, isn't it obvious? She's become part of my new designer tie pin collection. I thought she would be thrilled, given her love of fashion."

Adrien nearly choked with anger,
"How could you?!"

"She was a bad influence." The Collector said dismissively, "You are not a suitable match."

"She's the best thing that's ever happened to me!"

The Collector glared at the defiant boy, shoving down memories that threatened to surface, memories of a certain woman who had been the best thing to ever happen to him. The boy needed to be punished for his disobedience.

Adrien continued, "I love her, Father."

"You know nothing of Love!" The Collector snapped. "Enough oc this nonsense. You are going to come home right now, and stay ther-"

Adrien attacked. The Collector reeled back as the boy hit him full force, filled with fury. He may not have been transformed, but he still had claws as he scratched and screamed.

"You let them go right now! All of them! They show me more love than you ever have!"

Though of course his attacks gained little ground against a powered, but now increasingly irate, supervillain.
"How dare you! After all I have done for you. Everything I do is because I love you Adrien!"

As they continued to fight, Mayura observed from afar, wincing at every shouted word. Her migraine was now near-overpowering, but she forced herself to focus. For Mr Agreste, she thought - even as she hoped desperately that her employer would come to his senses and stop this madness.

A wave of pain hit her, so intense that her transformation dropped unbidden as she slumped on her seat, coughing violently.

Within Marinette's room, the fight between father and son ground to a sudden end as The Collector disappeared and Gabriel Agreste took his place. Marinette appeared back on the floor, in the same position as she had been zapped - before immediately jumped up protectively in front of Adrien.

The famous fashion designer shook his head in confusion, partially acting, and inwardly concerned about Natalie,
"Where am I?"

He looked around his surroundings before asking, "Adrien? Miss Dupain-Cheng? Tell me what happened, I don't quite recall..."

Adrien just stared at him with narrow eyes. You liar!

Marinette, quickly gathering her wits, took the lead,
"You... got akumatised Mr Agreste."

Shouts could be heard from below as Tom and Sabine reappeared and began running up the stairs.

"Akumatised? Oh, of course. The reason from my visit..." Gabriel pressed his lips tightly together, before turning to Adrien. "Why were you out of the house Adrien? Without your bodyguard also."

Adrien shrugged, "I just needed to get out and get some air."

"If that was all, then why did you feel the need to sneak out so dishonestly?"

Tom and Sabine burst through the door.
"Adrien! Marinette!" Shouted Tom.
"Are you okay?" Gasped Sabine.
Before both stopping in their tracks as they saw that the collector was no longer there.

Tom bristled angrily,
"I told you Mr Agreste. You are not welcome here. Now kindly please leave."

Gabriel made no attempt to move, "I shall leave in a moment. But first I desire a explanation. We are just having a discussion, if you would 'kindly' give us a moment." Tom gave a small huff as Gabriel turned to Adrien, "Well?"

"I-"

"I'll tell you why. Because you have been, hmm, seeing Miss Dupain-Cheng here. Despite me making it very clear that you were not to have any relationships without my approval. Am I correct?"

Adrien knew it was no use to deny it. He hung his head,
"Yes, Father."

"Very well. Go to the car Adrien, I desire to speak to Miss Dupain-Cheng alone."

Adrien lifted his head,
"But Father!"

"Now, Adrien. Natalie is waiting in the car for you. I would appreciate if you did not make this more difficult that it has to be."

After a glance at Marinette, who nodded reassurance, Adrien reluctantly left, with Sabine and Tom following close behind - though not before the protective father gave Gabriel a hard glare.

The stern-faced man watched them leave before turning to the inwardly-shaking girl.

"What are you intentions with my son, Miss Dupain-Cheng?"

Marinette, who had fully expected him to start yelling at her, was taken aback by his blunt question.

"I- I don't know that I have any intentions with him, sir. Just that I truly love him, and I wish to keep him safe from all harm."

"Hmm. I suppose we have that in common then. Why do you love him?"

Marinette sighed, "because he is kind, so helpful and thoughtful, and very brave."

"Not because he is rich, famous, and good-looking?"

"Well, I don't begrudge him his handsomeness," Marinette admitted, "but no. I don't care about his money or fame. Just him."

"I see."

There was a moments pause while Gabriel mulled this over in his mind. He had no doubt that regardless of what he instructed Adrien, he was bound to continue seeing this young lady. For he knew all too well that love could make people do impossibly foolish things.

"Very well. I shall consider perhaps allowing this... relationship continue. For now at least, but be warned that I shall be watching you Miss Dupain-Cheng. And from this moment onwards, I expect Natalie to be informed of your movements together at all times."

"Oh! Yes of course! Thank you Mr Agreste!" Marinette could barely contain her excitement, and narrow avoiding almost hugging Mr Agreste for joy, despite his coldness.

Gabriel could not quite supress the ghost of a smile that brushed his lips before schooling his face back into neutrality. She was so like Emilie, in her celebration of life and everything in between...

After another moment of awkward silence after Marinette's outburst of happiness, Gabriel decided to try something decidedly foreign to him: to be open and honest. He sighed,
"I must admit, I do feel that Adrien suffers from not having his mother around. Every since we lost her, it has been a struggle for both of us. You... remind me of her. Your joyful presence and natural tendency of kindness. Perhaps you, and your parents," he conceded, "will be good for Adrien. I try, but... I just do not know how to help him."

This was so unlike the Gabriel Agreste she had come to know and dislike - especially given the recent revelation of his secret identity - that Marinette just stood for a moment, gobsmacked. Then, slowly stirring and blinking a few times, as though waking up,
"I... well, maybe you could try spending more time with Adrien, sir? I know you are very busy but... he often talks about the time that you sat down and watched his mother's movie with him. Spending that time with you made him truly happy. It doesn't have to be much, just a few moments of being fully and pleasantly present with him would mean the world."

Gabriel gave the slightest smile,
"Perhaps I shall try that. Thank you... Marinette."

At a loss for words, she meekly nodded her head. Though as the fashion tycoon turned to leave, she couldn't help but say,
"If you don't mind me asking Mr Agreste... How did you know where we were? And figure out that we were dating?"

He hesitated a moment before responding,
"There was a video online of the Akuma attack. I saw you and Adrien together and the way you interacted made it immediately obvious." Then, abruptly, "Good day young lady."

The fashion designer swept out of the room, striding downstairs, leaving the astonished, trembling girl standing alone in the middle of her room.
"What on Earth just happened?" She whispered to herself.

Below, in a car outside the bakery, Adrien's head snapped to attention as Gabriel opened the door and sat down beside him.
"What did you say to Marinette?!"

Gabriel gave him a long, silent look, and after waiting until Adrien began to get uncomfortable, finally said,
"I told Miss Dupain-Cheng that, for now, I shall consider allowing this... relationship continue. But from this moment forwards, I expect Natalie to be informed of all your movements together."

"Oh Father!" Adrien exclaimed before reining himself in, "I mean. Thank you, Father. I appreciate that."

A pause, then Gabriel instructed Natalie to drive back to Agreste Mansion.

After spending half of the trip in silence, Gabriel then cleared his throat and grasped Adrien's hand,
"I apologise, Adrien, if you feel that I have not perhaps been showing you as much affection and love as you desire. Losing my wife, I admit, made me withdraw into myself. In handling my grief, I forgot that you had lost a mother. All I ever want is for you to be happy Adrien. And... I hope you know that you can always confide in me, if you are hurt or upset by something. I am truly sorry that I wasn't there for you in your time of need but, I am going to try."

He let go of Adrien's hand, glancing forward where Natalie caught his eye in the review mirror, giving him a small nod and the slightest of approving smiles, though wincing slightly at pain this caused her head.

Adrien just stared at his father, struggling to process everything that had happened in the past few hours, his heart a confusing whirlwind of conflicting emotions.

"Adrien?"

The boy shook himself slightly as he realised that he had not yet responded to his Father's uncharacteristically long and emotional (for him at least) speech. "Oh, sorry. Thank you, Father, I appreciate that."

As they arrive home and got out of the car, Adrien walked up to his room as fast as he dared, feeling the urge to hide away and just curl up on his bed and sleep for days, but first... I need to talk to M'lady.

🐈‍⬛️🐞🐈‍⬛️🐞🐈‍⬛️🐞🐈‍⬛️🐞🐈‍⬛️

Author's Note:
I'm alive! Surprised to see me? In all seriousness though, I am genuinely so, so incredibly sorry for not updating this story for such a large amount of time. I cannot believe that it has been two whole years since I pressed 'pause' on this story! Honestly never thought it would be so long... life has been so hectic and busy for me these past couple years and even when I did have the time and energy and motivation to write (the combination of which was rare in itself) I felt that I had to focus on my other stories first. Additionally, my fascination with Miraculous has sadly faded a little (I haven't even watched Season 5 yet - I'm too scared haha) and whilst it will always hold a special place in my heart I sadly just haven't been able to invest in it as much as I used to. If any of you folks have still kept this story in your library and been hopefully holding on and hoping for another chapter, from the bottom of my heart... thank you. Really do so appreciate your support and readership. I cannot promise that I will be anywhere near back to regularly publishing on this story again, as for now I do have other stories such as 'A Single Rose' which I wish to prioritise and complete, however I will try to write and share new chapters where I can, until I finally complete this story - though it may be a few more years yet (sorry!)
In any case, I hope this update was a pleasant surprise, and I do assure you that one day I will eventually fully finish this story, if you please just remain patient with me.
Thank you again for all your amazing support and encouragement! Stay miraculous! ^_^